In Defense of Donovan (sort of)

The comments about it being harder for a black QB just sounded like an excuse, plain and simple. McNabb may be immensely talented, but he is lacking in the leadership department. He needs to finally step up and be the offensive leader Jeff Garcia was last year.

I don't care what color McNabb is, all I want is for him to stop bouncing passes and improve his on field vision. For years, receivers (and TEs) have taken the brunt of the heat when the passing game isn't clicking.... Thrash, Pinkston, Mitchell, Owens, Stallworth, Lewis (Chad and Greg) and now Curtis, Brown, Avant and Baskett. Some of those guys are scrubs, some of them are all stars. A good QB puts the ball in his receivers hands and makes a scrub look good... case in point, Eagle castoff Jabbar Gaffney catching TD's from Tom Brady last year.

So to McNabb, shut the f**k up, show some leadership, locate your receivers and get the damn ball into their hands. That will silence your critics and go a long way with the fans.

Rickhouse, JJ, I agree with both of you guys. I do wish he'd keep it quiet, not because he shouldn't be allowed to say what he feels, but I think it's ultimately going to hurt this team if he goes on some kind of crusade.

His performance on the field needs to improve, and it will. It is troubling that the reaction to his comments is, "bench him." When all his play really suggests is a slow start, and also the fact that he came back from the injury too soon. He is playing better than Brees, and no one's calling for his head.

Brees wasn't a cast-off. He had back to back years with 3,000+ yards, and combined for 51 touchdowns and only 22 interceptions over those two years.

He's as much the face of the Saints as McNabb is the Eagles at this point.

I'm not saying McNabb shouldn't shoulder the bulk of the blame for this poor start. He's the QB, that's the way it usually happens, especially in Philly. I'm just saying that the reaction to these comments has been absurd. I'm not even sure what people are saying he's making excuses for.

When he gave the interview, the Eagles lost a tough game, at Green Bay, because of Special Teams. No one, and I do mean no one, blamed McNabb for that loss. It would've been a win had they fielded one of two botched punts. He wasn't getting any heat whatsoever from the press. If anything, the feeling was that he looked decent considering he was only 10 months removed from knee surgery.

Is the contention that he made the statements to cut himself some slack because he knew they were going to lose on Monday night? Or because he knows he's going to have a bad season? I don't think he'd engineer a preemptive smoke screen for possible future failures. I think he honestly feels this way, and he just picked a very inopportune time to talk about it on TV.

He is coming off an injury that changed Daunte Culpepper from maybe Hall of Fame to 2nd or 3rd on THE RAIDERS depth chart. McNabb has been in the playofs all the years he has played the majority of the season. And did you see the last couple drives. When he was scrambling out of the pocket he was more accurate. He is still a top 10 QB. Another thing is The Washington Redskins have a pretty good defense with 4 top 8 draft picks in their secondary(Sean Taylor, Shawn Springs, Charles Rogers, LaRon Landry). Our Secondary on the other hand, without Lito, isn't so good. William James Is a #3 Cornerback and caught a pick that was thrown late and was right to him. The receivers didn't do so well Monday but I think they are still capable players. Jason Avant has the ability to be a starter and Reggie Brown and Kevin Curtis will be better. They will fair better against Detroit where they won't be pressed so tightly and McNabb will be able to pick the Detroit secondary apart.

It's not a money thing with the Eagles, it's a philosophy thing. There are certain positions they're willing to spend money one (defensive end and QB), and certain positions they aren't (WR). They really believe the system makes the player, not vice versa.

You can't really argue with that philosophy too much, take a look at the receivers they've had on the team for their 4-year run to the championship game, only T.O. was even close to the Pro Bowl.

I'm willing to give him a game or two of slack, see if this team can right the ship, before I call for him to take a pay cut and/or call for Kolb to take over the team. It's not just that he's earned that much, it's that I agree with Eric, he's a top 10 QB when healthy, let's let him get his feet under him before we throw him to the wolves.